14 DAY TRIAL // Life is suddenly a lot harder and the future insecure for over 1,000 people that used to work for IBM as recently as a week ago.
Word is out that the company laid off more than 1,000 people during the past seven days, which is quite a big number, even if the pink slips were spread across the whole country (USA).
The revelation is attributed to an employee organization that also implied that more layoffs were on the way.
By navigating to the homepage of the Alliance@IBM/CWA Local 1701 worker union, one can see exactly how many people each department lost.
GTS Delivery Application Hosting, GTS Delivery Distributed Server Mgmt and GTS ITS were the most affected.
Meanwhile, Corporate Marketing and Communications, GTS finance, GTS MTS Delivery solutions/support and GBS Consulting Services Industrial Sector got off easiest.
IBM did not elaborate on this maneuver, or its future plans for job cuts, but this stopped being a surprise back in 2010.
The last public disclosure of the number of workers in the US was made in 2009, when the company had 105,000 people.
After that, the corporation changed its practice of reporting on employee numbers and began to constantly rebalance its workforce, as a recent statement reportedly puts it.
Rebalancing means “reducing in some areas and hiring in others — based on shifts in technology and client demand,” said a spokesman in the aforementioned statement.
“This flexibility allows IBM to remain competitive and relevant in an industry that is constantly changing. And given the competitive nature of our business, we do not publicly discuss the details of our staffing plans.”
At present, IBM's total worker base is estimated at slightly below 100,000. As it continues to strategically let go of workers form some departments while hiring in others, one can only wonder if the people working for it enjoy any feeling of job security. Sure, 1000 is a small enough part of 100,000, but these constant shifts in how IBM goes about its business can't be easy on their nerves.